


K-Day, The world turned upside down

by kkool



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: After the invasion, Gen, M/M, Stacker Pentecost's son, Title from a Hamilton song, makes a brief appearance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 04:23:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7786630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kkool/pseuds/kkool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the first attack, the world keeps moving</p>
            </blockquote>





	K-Day, The world turned upside down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [voleuse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/gifts).



It was a Saturday; K-Day – the morning that the world changed.

People say that you remember what you were doing the exact moment that something monumental happens but that’s mostly a lie. It takes years and hindsight to know just how much one day could just change the entire course of human history.  
The day Trespasser attacked San Francisco, most of the world was still asleep. Others were busy, engaged in the minutiae of day to day life – eating breakfast, going to work, having sex, watching TV. They may not be able to tell you what they were doing when the attack happened. But they could tell you what happened after.

 

Mako Mori was in bed, dreaming of Keiko’s birthday party where there had been three types of birthday cakes and she’d gotten to play with a puppy. She was content, in the way ten year old girls who are doing well in school and have lots of friends often are. The first she heard of the attack was at breakfast next morning when she traipsed into the dining room to find her parents glued to their television screen. 

“Some grown up thing. Not here.” She dismissed the footage playing across the screen in favour of grabbing some natto and rice for herself. It wasn’t until she heard all the teachers discussing the still unfolding event at school did she realize that what she’d seen that morning was real. Mako and her parents felt the shock and sadness of the incident but practically, Mako’s life changed little. News anchors threw around the worst terrorist attack and government conspiracy but everyone seemed convinced that this was a either a science experiment gone wrong or a biological attack by America’s enemies. Most people knew that this was a one off, freak happenstance. People moved on. A few months later T-shirts featuring the beast became popular in the road side markets of Tanegashima, usually referring to it as The Kaiju, a name Mako noted seemed to be catching on all over the world. The T-shirts were a novelty, everyone in her school had them and everyone seemed to have their own theory on which country had created this beast. Mako had one herself, a cute blue shirt with ‘Keep calm and watch out for the kaiju’ in glittery red letters. 

Three years later she would spare a moment in between running for her life to find this ironic. 

 

Raleigh had been on his first date when it happened. He and Jenny from Calculus class had gone to their town’s only diner after school to share a chocolate milkshake. They’d been walking down the pier when they noticed that the streets were pretty deserted for noon. It was only then that Jenny noticed the half a dozen missed calls from her mother.  
They’d rushed off to their homes to find their families preparing to batten down the hatches. Anchorage wasn’t that far from San Francisco and no one seemed to know anything about this monster and how fast it could travel. Raleigh went with his mother to try grab as many emergency supplies as they could find while Yancy helped their father shore up the house. They weren’t the only ones. The grocery store was a stampede of people trying to grab anything they could get their hands on. Fights erupted in the aisles with families playing tug of war for the last generator or any medicines still left on the shelves. 

“We need a battle plan for this” he remembered his mother saying as she took in the chaos unfolding. You go grab whatever food you can get and I’ll see about wrangling some construction equipment. “I’ll try talk to Tina, maybe they have some more inventory in the backrooms.”  
He could never quite recollect exactly what they managed to get and how they got it. Just that it didn’t seem enough and that his mother had a pinched look on her face, the ones she got when a bad winter storm was about to hit or him and Yancy fought. 

In the end, their preparation was all for nothing. They nuked Tresspasser from the orbit before it ever left California. Everybody who survived fled the nuclear wasteland the state had become but few made it to Anchorage; even the end of the world isn’t enough to deal with the cold and the economic uncertainty. Raleigh and Yancy went back to school, they donated to relief collections and Raleigh went on his second date with Jenny Yost. But something had changed. Another attack, so soon on the heels of 9/11 had the US become paranoid about Homeland Security. Political parties flung threats and accusations at each other, news pundits questioned intelligence efforts and the borders became more tightly regulated than ever. “Who has the intelligence and resources to create a monster like this one?” seemed to be a common refrain on everyone’s lips. It wouldn’t be until the next attack that people realized that this was bigger than anything any of them were thinking. That this was a threat to the entire human population. High school became even more of a distraction; no one’s going to need an accountant when the world might be ending. And Raleigh became even more impatient to get out of this town. 

 

“Giant monster attacks San Francisco, US” read the TV screens in the Pentecost living room.  
Stacker had been back from his deployment for a total of 2 days, 7 hours and had been enjoying a rousing game of cops and robbers with his son when then news hit. 

“National Guard deployed to deal with the situation. Army and Air Force on standby” the ticker underneath the footage continued. “Evacuation efforts underway.”

“Daaaadd…” his seven year old whined coming up from behind him. “You’re supposed to be hiding. Robbers don’t just stand and wait for cops to catch them!”

“Another terrorist attack? No terrorist organization has claimed responsibility yet.”

“I know kiddo. Sorry, just got distracted. Why don’t you ask you Dad to play with you? Daddy just needs to finish up something.”

John pouted adorably but he had enough experience with Stacker getting caught up in work to know when he could wheedle and when he really was beaten. He rushed off to find Aditya, hoping to entice him in a thrilling game of chase, while Stacker remained glued to the television watching the American efforts to contain the monster to one part of the city.

“Do they know who’s responsible?” Aditya asked coming up to stand behind the couch. 

“Not yet. Right now I think they’re more concerned about how to kill it.”

“You’ll have to go in again won’t you?” It wasn’t a question as much as a resigned statement.

Stacker turned away from the television to actually look at his husband. Adi had on a ridiculous hat, apparently supposed to be a ski mask, and a worried expression. “Don’t know yet. It depends on if the Air Force decides that the US needs British air support. Or if they just want every available pilot on standby in case this thing can cross oceans.”

Aditya just nodded quietly in answer. “Okay then”, he said after a few minutes. “Until we know for sure let’s at least have some supper.”

Stacker continued to stare at the TV screen watching as the monster shrugged off bullets, grenades and any other weapons aimed at it. It would be another three days before Trespasser would be killed and the conversation would shift to who was responsible for the attack. And if Stacker’s gut feeling kept thinking of this as an invasion, well, it wasn’t like he had any proof was there.

 

Everyone thought they’d won. But the battle had barely started.


End file.
